Research into the importance and role of character design (Unit 9 1.1)

To advance my understanding of character design and the meanings conveyed by these designs I will be analysing the key features of two contrasting characters. By understanding character design I will be able to develop characters of my own and I will be able to make informed decisions during the creation process. In order to understand the meaning behind character design I must first deconstruct the individual aspects and conduct research. To start with I will consider the shapes that form characters. Bradley (2010) discusses the meaning behind different shapes such as squares, circles and triangles in designs, he states that each of these shapes conveys very different meanings. He suggests that circular designs invoke feelings of warmth, comfort and energy, he describes square designs as stable, solid and secure and he mentions that triangular designs represent action and aggression. This research is relevant to character design as characters are designed with the meaning of these shapes in mind, their designs will often focus on one of these shapes in particular in order to invoke the feelings which I previously mentioned. Colours play a large role in our perception of characters, according to Rikard (2015) lighter colours such as white tend to convey positive themes such as innocence, goodness and safety, this contrasts strongly with the meanings conveyed by darker colours such as black which invoke feelings of negativity, grief and death.

The first character I will be analysing is Kirby of Kirby’s Dreamland (Nintendo, 1992). The appearance of Kirby conveys a lot about the kind of character they are, the rounded, curved shape of their body suggests that the character isn’t threatening at all. This is supported by the work of Bradley (2010) who states that circular shapes invoke feelings of warmth and comfort. Kirby’s colours are quite light and cool which suggests they are quite a positive character, Rikard (2015) states that pink conveys feelings of friendship and passiveness. Their appearance matches well with their personality, Kirby is a cheerful and innocent character and this is reinforced by the lack of any sharp or pointed features. Kirby’s movements are quite bouncy and floaty, this fits well with their laidback personality and their unintimidating appearance. Kirby’s voice is high-pitched and almost childlike, these align well with the themes conveyed by their other key features and further solidify Kirby as an innocuous character. Children are the main audience of Kirby games and thus the character must not have an inappropriate appearance, the light tones and round shape of Kirby create a character which is suitable for younger audiences. All of Kirby’s key features work together to create a cohesive theme which is suitable for the audience, none of these features are out of place for the character or its intended purpose.

The second character I will be analysing is Metal Face from Xenoblade Chronicles (Nintendo 2010), this character is far more sinister and antagonistic than Kirby, this is conveyed primarily through their form and colour. Metal Face primarily consists of blacks and reds. According to Rikard (2015) black has many negative connotations such as fear, death and grief, they also suggest that red invokes feelings of rage, malice and wrath which are appropriate for a deadly adversary. The long, sharp claws make Metal Face appear more dangerous, this is in part because the claws are reminiscent of the claws of a dangerous animal, this is reinforced by the feral poses that Metal Face often adopts during combat. Triangular shapes make up most of Metal Face’s form, Bradley’s (2010) work suggests that their sharp and jagged aesthetic would convey aggression, speed and power, this ties in closely to their movements which are extremely swift as they jet through the sky. Metal Face has a very rough voice, they often speak in a mocking tone, referring to their adversaries as insects or maggots. This is a good representation of Metal Face’s personality as a whole because they act as if they are above everyone and everything else. Their mocking tone combined with their large size and great combat ability makes them seem like an insurmountable opponent, this is very appropriate as they are an antagonist throughout the game and serve as a target for the player to overcome. Metal Face is appropriate for the audience because Xenoblade Chronicles (Nintendo 2010) is a game which features death and danger throughout, so Metal Face appearing this deadly and threatening is suitable given his role. There is a strong correlation between Metal Face’s characteristics; their mocking, dark personality combines well with their dangerous appearance, which in turn relates well to their swift and deadly movements.

By conducting this research into character design and by analysing these two contrasting characters I have advanced my understanding of the key design elements and how they relate to each other. This knowledge will allow me to work on character designs of my own, I will also be able to understand the reasoning behind various design decisions I am making such as character colours and form. One of the aspects of character design I researched is the theory of colour, I looked into the meaning behind each colour and considered how this can relate to the designs of characters. Part of what I learned is that darker colours have connotations such as negativity, death and grief and that lighter colours have connotations such as positivity, innocence and purity. I also researched the theory of shape and the meaning of circular, triangular and square designs. Circular, curved designs are more comforting, square designs appear more sturdy and triangular designs appear more aggressive and swift.

Lego Batman Character Analysis (Unit 9 1.1) (Unit 10 1.1)

To understand how to design characters with specific target audiences in mind I will be considering how the Lego Games redesign worlds and their characters to make them appropriate for their target audience of children. I will look at one character in particular and examine how they diverge from their original design and how this makes them more appropriate for a younger audience. By analysing how the character is changed I hope to learn more about what makes a character appealing for a specific target audience.

The LegoBatman games are created with a target audience of children, this is apparent from the low age rating of 7. Lego games are consistently adapted to make them more suitable for their young audience, considering the source material the Lego Batman games only have minor themes of non-realistic violence and sometimes minor themes of fear. To adapt the Batman universe to be more suitable for children the creators have used brighter colours as well as the classic Lego figures for the humanoid characters. The bright colours and simplistic shapes make the characters less threatening. During the games level of violence is kept very low, any weaponry in the game is exaggerated and unrealistic, when a character is attacked there is no blood and when the characters are defeated they simply fall to pieces. Lego games consistently adapt the original content to make it more suitable for children, often using bright designs and comedic scenes to make even darker aspects of their film-based games suitable. Even the earliest film-based Lego games such as Lego Star Wars: The Video Game adapted graphic scenes to make them more suitable, this is a trend which continues throughout the Lego game series.

In the Lego Batman games all characters are redesigned to fit the Lego style, this includes giving them the iconic Lego character form and making them more suitable for children. Batman’s design has undergone some changes to make him more appealing to children, most notably his cowl is exaggerated and rounded, the simpler, curved shape makes the design more appealing and less intimidating for younger audiences. The idea that curved shapes are less threatening and more safe and comforting is supported by the work of Bradley (2010) who discusses the meanings conveyed by different shapes. His eyes are also replaced with a solid white colour from behind the cowl, this is simpler and clearer than showing his eyes behind the cowl and results in a more impactful appearance. As with almost all characters in Lego games Batman has the uniform body type of a Lego character, this means that he doesn’t have an overbearing stature and he has a relatively squat and square form. Overall, the redesign of Batman for the Lego games makes his much less threatening and changes his design to seem simpler and more impactful which is important for younger audiences.

By looking at Lego Batman 3 and the design of Batman in particular I have deepened my understanding of how characters can be designed for specific audiences and how their designs will differ between these audiences. This helps me understand how to create characters of my own with a specific target audience in mind.

In order to better understand how to design characters I will analyse the importance of the audience of a character and then redesign the character for a different audience. I will explain why the character was suitable for it’s original audience and then discuss how the design could be altered to make it both appealing and appropriate for a different audience by considering the previous analysis.

Metal Face is a part of the game Xenoblade Chronicles (Nintendo 2010), the audience for this game would be mid-teens with an approximate age range of 14-16. The game has multiple playable male and female characters, this widens its appeal to both genders and none of the themes in the game exclude either gender. This is reinforced by the importance of roles that both genders of characters play in the story. The game was initially released in Japan and was later released in Europe, the game is considered niche as it has a relatively small audience. Most of the audience would have interests in adventure and combat as these are central themes to the game, danger in particular is a theme which relates strongly to Metal Face. For Metal Face to be redesigned as a more child-friendly they would need a new appearance, the target age group would be reduced to approximately 7-10. Similarly to before the character would be in a game targeted at both genders. The interests of the audience would remain the same but the element of danger would be strongly pulled back.

The first aspects to change when redesigning Metal Face’s appearance would be his size and shape, to make the character more suitable for younger audiences I would greatly change these features, to start the body shape would be redesigned to look more like a human. I would then remove most of the intricate details as simpler shapes appeal more to younger audiences, but the most important identifying features such as the mask and the claws. According to Rikard (2015) colours convey a large range of emotions and are a core consideration when designing, with darker colours generally conveying negative emotions and lighter colours conveying positive emotions. The colours across Metal Face are generally dark and threatening with a focus on red, gold and black, these could be changed to become lighter, the black could be replaced with a grey, the red could be switched with a less threatening blue and the gold could remain as it is the least negative colour. It is possible that the red could be toned back and remain as it helps define his appearance and role as an antagonist. One of the main ways I would redesign Metal Face would be to change the character to be a human child in a metal robotic costume with a mask which resembles Metal Face’s original mask. The mask would have to be more rounded and have less spikes to make it more appropriate for children, the bottom half could also be missing to leave the bottom half of the child’s face showing as this humanises the character and makes them more relatable for children. To continue with this theme the voice of the character would be younger and more like that of a child. They would also use much less violent language as the language Metal Face originally uses is inappropriate for children. An example of the body type that the redesigned Metal Face would have is that of Beast Boy (Teen Titans Go, 2013). In this series Beast Boy has a relatively large head and simplistic, colourful features, this kind of style would be the most appropriate for a younger audience as the head to body ratio makes the character far less threatening. Part of the reason for this is due to the meanings conveyed by shapes, Bradley (2010) suggests that round shapes are more comforting, square shapes are more stable and triangular shapes represent aggression and speed, with this in mind the redesign of Metal Face would have to be primarily focused on rounded shapes, yet still use enough sharp, triangular shapes to convey that they are an antagonist. Another example of colour palette and design would be Meta Knight from the Kirby games. Meta Knight has a mixture of dark and light colours in an effort to convey that they are an antagonist while remaining child-friendly. The redesign of Metal Face would use a similar style to this by not using an overbearing amount of dark colours, yet using enough to convey that they are an antagonist.

By conducting this analysis of audience and by redesigning the character with this in mind I have improved my understanding of character design in relation to a target audience, this will aid me when I design characters of my own. The target audience must be a core consideration when developing a design for a character and this analysis has helped me deepen my understanding of the techniques involved in appealing to specific groups of people through a visual design.

I am going to compare the audiences of Lego Batman 3 (Traveller’s Tales, 2015), Street Fighter 5 (Capcom, 2016) and Mortal Kombat X (NetherRealm Studios, 2015), this will allow me to understand what makes each of these titles appropriate or inappropriate for a particular audience. By comparing these titles I will deepen my understanding of how to design content with a specific target audience in mind which is vital to creating any character concepts.

The Lego and Street Fighter audiences do have some overlap, both are focused on multiplayer experiences and are full of bright colours. Both types of games are filled with action and combat, however both have a comedic feel rather than being serious or dark. Both series also focus on diversity, in either series you will be able to play a wide cast of characters, they are also created to appeal to a large amount of people. Lego games are suitable for almost anyone in the world and Street Fighter games represent a large variety of nations which helps widen it’s appeal as people can find different characters to relate to in each series.

Although similar in concept Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat X have different audiences as they are more appealing to different groups of people. Street Fighter has a colourful and lighthearted world, the characters themselves are visually appropriate for everyone aside from some sexualisation of female characters. Mortal Kombat X contrasts to Street fighter in several ways, the world is dark and gruesome which makes it less suitable for children and less appealing in general to many people. Mortal Kombat X features violence to a far larger degree than Street Fighter even though they are both fighting games, the video Mortal Kombat X – All Fatalities (deathmule, 2015) shows many examples of extremely graphic finishing moves. Kubas-Meyer (2015) describes the violence in Mortal Kombat X and says that “Blood flows freely” and that “bones snap in vivid detail”. The critical arts in Street Fighter 5 are far more flashy and spectacular and incorporate no blood or x-rays of broken bones, this can be seen in the video Street Fighter 5: All Critical Arts (Supers) (NowGamerTube, 2015). Overall the games appeals to slightly different audiences due to the visual content of the game, Mortal Kombat X appeals to a more mature audience due to the more graphic violence whereas Street Fighter 5 appeals to a wider range of people due to the brighter colours and more diverse cast of characters who are from around the world. Due to these differences I can conclude that Street Fighter would be more appropriate for the Lego franchise than Mortal Kombat X.

The audiences of Lego and Street Fighter are much closer than that of Lego and Mortal Kombat X, however there are still some issues that must be considered. The Street Fighter series, although less graphic than Mortal Kombat X still contains excessive violence, this means that if Street Fighter is to be redesigned for children it must tone back on some of the more violent moves. Another issue is the sexualisation of the appearance and behaviour of some female characters, this will already be reduced if the characters are recreated as Lego figures, however this is still an issue that needs to be considered as overly sexual characters are not suitable for a target audience of children.

In opposition to this, Street Fighter’s bright colours and diverse cast make it a great fit for the Lego universe. The bright aesthetic is very appealing to children and the variety of characters means that players are more likely to have a character that they relate to. The lighthearted nature of the Street Fighter series is also a great fit as all Lego games are lighthearted and comedic in an attempt to appeal to children. The action filled combat is another important aspect, Lego games tend to have a low level of violence anyway so translating Street Fighter’s combat shouldn’t be a large issue.

This Venn diagram I created shows where the Lego and Street Fighter franchises are similar and where they are different, by looking at these we can determine how appropriate Street Fighter would be for Lego’s audience. For example both games are suitable for a wide range of ages, however Lego is games are suitable for practically every age, however due to violence and suggestive themes in the Street Fighter series they are less suitable for very young audiences. I believe that the many similarities between the two franchises mean that Street Fighter could easily be made into a suitable Lego game.

By evaluating the audiences of these three games I have deepened my understanding of what makes a game appropriate for it’s audience and inappropriate for others. I have also considered what would be necessary to redesign the Street Fighter series for the Lego franchise as this increases my understanding of why certain designs appeal to to specific audiences and how they can be changed to suit a different demographic.

Characteristics and Representation (Unit 9 1.1)

I am going discuss characteristics and representation in video games by analysing how some characters from the Street Fighter series are portrayed, to do this I will be referring to the Black Characters In The Street Fighter Series (TheZoneGamer, 2016)article. By doing this I hope to improve my understanding of representation in video games and how stereotypes factor into character designs.

I believe that several of the character designs and redesigns in the Street Fighter series are designed to both create diversity in the character cast and to appeal to a larger audience. For example, Balrog is a character who was initially made as a parody of Mike Tyson, his name was initially Mike Bison, but was later changed to dodge “an impending lawsuit from Tyson” (TheZoneGamer, 2016). Balrog was designed as a parody of Mike Tyson as an attempt to appeal to fans of Tyson, his audience would be people who are fans of boxing and who like aggressive characters. This may have been an attempt to widen their audience to people who are more interested in sports such as boxing and who may not be as interested in video games. Birdie is a character who appeared in multiple Street Fighter games, however his appearance has changed drastically between the titles. Initially Birdie was “depicted as a gangling, athletic white/light-skinned man with a blonde mohawk.” (TheZoneGamer, 2016), however he was redesigned between games and became “a large, dark-skinned black British man with bleached blonde hair, a broad pointy brown moustache that extends to the sides of his head to become sideburns and black features.”. It is possible that Capcom redesigned Birdie to inject more diversity into the cast of Street Fighter without creating new characters specifically to fill that role and instead using an existing, popular character. The core of Birdie’s character has mostly stayed the same as he has stayed a “very tall, late 1970s Cockney, British punk rocker.” (TheZoneGamer, 2016), the core of his character is designed to appeal to the people who lived around the 1970s as they would be familiar with the culture of British punk rockers. The main aspects of Birdie which changed other than his skin tone are his body type and his personality, he went from an overbearing, muscular fighter in a leaned-forward stance to an overweight glutenous character who is more interested in food than fighting. This change of personality was likely designed to appeal to less serious gamers who want to play more a lighthearted, comedic character. I believe that the Street Fighter cast does represent cultural diversity, the characters in the game are from all around the world and have strong, defining characteristics.

When compared to other fighting games I believe that Street Fighter is quite good when it comes to cultural diversity, for example Street Fighter focuses on having fighters from all around the world however Mortal Kombat X has many of the core cast from Earth originating in either America, China or Japan. For example, Johnny Cage, Sonya Blade, Jax Briggs, Cassie Cage, Jacqui Briggs and Erron Black all originate from the United States of America. In more recent years the games have introduced characters from a variety of cultures such as Nightwolf who is an Apache warrior, however his design is strongly composed of stereotypical imagery. Nightwolf can be closely compared to T. Hawk from Street Fighter II, both of these designs are strongly stereotyped and this can be considered a poor way of representing cultural diversity as they are relying heavily on stereotypes of Native Americans, however it can also be argued that due to the style of fighting games and in particular the style of the Street Fighter series that the characters need to be bright and exaggerated in order to stand out during fast paced combat and to stand out from the rest of the cast of fighters. I believe that Dudley from the Street Fighter series is an example good character design which diversifies the cast without heavily relying on stereotypes, his design focuses on the fact that he is a wealthy British boxer who always wear formal attire and his boxing gloves. His design doesn’t hit any racial stereotypes, however it can be argued that Dudley does rely on the cultural stereotypes of British gentlemen, though his design is said to be heavily inspired by “Chris Eubanks, a black British boxing champion of Jamaican descent who was famous in the 80s and early 90s. Eubanks trademark attire included a monocle and bowler hat.”. An example of a character design which I feel doesn’t resort to any stereotypes is Pharah from Overwatch (Blizzard, 2016), she is an Egyptian who works as part of a futuristic private security firm, her design focuses very heavily on her futuristic armour, however the design still incorporates aspects of her culture without resorting to exaggeration, for example the “Eye of Horus” tattoo under her eye.

By analysing the character designs of Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat with a focus on cultural and racial stereotypes in character designs I have deepened my understanding of why characters rely on these stereotypes and how this ties to the genre of game. I have also considered how audience plays into the design of certain characters, by analysing these various aspects I have improved my understanding of characters designing, and the impact of game genre as well as how designs are created to appeal to various audiences.

Character and Audio (Unit 9 1.1) (Unit 10 1.1)

Audio is almost always a core feature when conveying information about a character in video games, it can tell the listener a lot about a character’s personality. This has been true since even very early games, however technical limitations lead many early games to use voice in a very restricted sense or to not use it at all. I am going to compare the voice work of Ryu in Super Street Fighter II (Capcom 1993) and Street fighter V (Capcom 2016) to examine how far voice work in gaming has come and why it has changed so much.

The first video I will be looking at is Super Street Fighter II VOICE COLLECTION (ChikikyoKONAMI, 2009), in this clip Ryu’s voice work is very limited, the lines are quick, short and low quality. When creating the game the developers would have used a small amount of short voice clips as this would save on space which was extremely limited for early games systems. Due to the limited amount of voice work Ryu’s character is not very well conveyed, his voice lines do little to separate him out from the rest of the male cast such as Ken. Overall these voice lines aren’t unsuitable for Ryu, however they do little to define him as a character.

The second video I will be looking at is Street Fighter V: Japanese vs English Voices | All Characters [Launch] HD (ADAPT Chance 2016), in this video Ryu’s voice work has been expanded a lot, he speaks full sentences rather than only making grunts and saying the names of certain moves. By speaking full sentences the listeners get a much greater sense of who Ryu is, the voice lines in this clip convey a sense of a gruff, determined and respectful fighter. This kind of depth could not have been conveyed before due to the limitations of technology, however modern games make great use of technology to convey personality through voice. The quality of the voice work is also improved due to the advancement of technology, in the past audio files would have to be very limited in size to save space, however in current times game developers have many less restrictions when working with audio. The samples that used in this game are chosen because they convey a lot about who Ryu is as a character without outright telling you facts about him, he conveys his personality through his tone and the types of things he says. Overall I would say that these voice clips are far more suitable for Ryu as the performance conveys far more about his personality than the voice work in Super Street Fighter II.

By doing this task I have advanced my understanding of the advancement of voice work in video games and my understanding of how voice work is used to convey personality. By knowing this I will be able to develop voice work of my own with the knowledge of it’s importance and what factors are important to consider when trying to convey character through a voice performance.

Character and Audio 2 (Unit 9 1.1) (Unit 10 1.1)

I am going to continue my previous study of voice by comparing the voice work of Birdie in Super Street Fighter II (Capcom 1993) and Street fighter V (Capcom 2016) to examine how far voice work in gaming has come and why it has changed so much.

The first video I will be looking at is Street Fighter Alpha (ARC) OST – Voice Collection (Vox Nihili, 2012), in this clip there are only about 20 seconds of voice lines for Birdie, this is an extremely small amount and can be attributed to the technical limitations of the platform. The voice clips themselves are relatively low quality and each has a very short duration. Although the limited amount, quality and duration of voice work make it difficult to convey much about Birdie’s character, his voice was exaggerated which helped to define his character. I find these voicelines to suit Birdie, but they are very lacking which makes it difficult to convey a sense of personality.

The second video I will be looking at is Street Fighter V: Japanese vs English Voices | All Characters [Launch] HD (ADAPT Chance 2016), in this video Birdie’s voicework has been greatly improved. In this game Birdie speaks full sentences, this conveys a much greater sense of character than in previous titles, his rough and glutenous personality is displayed far more easily with the improved voice work. This kind of depth could not have been conveyed before due to the limitations of technology, however modern games make great use of technology to convey personality through voice. The quality of the voice work is also improved due to the advancement of technology, in the past audio files would have to be very limited in size to save space, however in current times game developers have many less restrictions when working with audio. The samples of voice audio used in this game for Birdie are chosen because they convey a lot about his personality in a few short sentences, his character is far more apparent in this title than in previous titles because he speaks in full sentences rather than being limited to a few grunts and a phrase or two. Overall I would say that these voice clips are far more suitable for Birdie as the performance conveys far more about his personality than the voice work in Super Street Fighter Alpha.

By doing this task I have further advanced my understanding of the advancement of voice work in video games and my understanding of how voice work is used to convey personality. By knowing this I will be able to develop voice work of my own with the knowledge of it’s importance and what factors are important to consider when trying to convey character through a voice performance.

Character pose speed drawings (Unit 9 2.2)

For this task I drew poses of Ryu and Birdie with time limits such as 30 seconds, 1 minute and 2 minutes. The aim was to improve my drawing skills, in particular my ability to quickly draw form. For some of the later drawings I drew without looking at the paper after I’d drawn the form a few times to focus on the character I was drawing, I also did continuous line drawing for several images and refrained from erasing any lines.

At first I found myself strapped for time with the speed drawings, I was too focused on the detail of the character, on the second set of speed drawings I found it easier to focus on the important aspects such as the overall outline of the character’s form. When doing continuous line drawings I found that my experience with the speed drawings aided me in understanding how the outline of the character formed, by focusing a lot on the form of the character I was able to quickly develop the basis of a character sketch which could then be easily developed upon.

In terms of feedback I was told that the forms of my characters were off slightly in several of the speed drawings, in particular the width of the legs and the length of the arms in comparison to the rest of the body, I made a concerted effort to improve on this, although some of the final continuous line drawings have mistakes regarding scale and form.

Overall I feel that this task did help me help my drawing skills, my ability to draw quickly has improved and there is a visible difference throughout the drawings. This task will help me in the future as I will be drawing character concepts for upcoming projects. The ability to swiftly draw the poses of my character will allow me to easily demonstrate ideas I have and will help lead up to me animating the character.

Character Storyboarding (Unit 9 2.1, 2.2) (Unit 10 2.1, 2.2)

For this task I created some drawings demonstrating my custom character taking heavy damage, using a heavy attack and performing their critical attack. Below each image is an annotation which describes what each image is and what’s happening in the drawing. I found that my drawings displayed what I wanted well but could be improved, for example the proportions between images were slightly inaccurate as the different body part change sizes slightly.

The first two images show the character taking damage, the first drawing is straight after the impact and the second is the character recovering after a stagger back. The second line of drawings represent the character moving from their idle pose into their heavy attack, the attack is a lunging low punch. The final four images represent the character’s critical art, it begins with the character appealing to the crowd, the second image show the character building an intense flame in a close-up. Afterward the camera pulls backwards quickly and the character lunges forwards launching a spear of flame from their mouth, after the attack has concluded the camera zooms in again as they mocking laugh at their opponent with crossed arms.

This task was very important for me as it helped me hone my drawing skills and it helps me define what how the character will act during a fight and what types of moves they will use. Overall it was an important step towards fully defining who my character is and how they move. I will use these drawings when I record myself doing these motions in preparation for my final animation.

Audience Analysis (Unit 10 1.1, 1.2)

What do the articles tell you about:

The traditional audience for fighting games?

The appeal of fighting games to this audience?

The problems in broadening that appeal to new audience demographics?

Traditionally fighting games appeal to a more competitive audience rather than a casual one, Ben Moore (2016) states that “The game resonates most strongly with an audience that already “gets it.””. This is further solidified by the fact that “fighting games have their own terminology” (Ben Moore 2016) and that they are often “Marred by difficult controls, agonizing learning curves and detailed frame knowledge” (Kenneth Nussbaum, 2014). Fighting game appeal to these dedicated and competitive players, this is shown by the ranked mode and the esports scene which encourage and reward players for mastering a character and playing them skillfully. The issue with this type of appeal is that it makes the barrier for entry to newcomers very high, Ben Moore (2016) states that the previously mention complex terminology and steep learning curve end up “creating a mental barrier for a large number of people that think “this is too hard for me.””.How have developers tried to overcome these problems?

Capcom have attempted to appeal to the more casual demographic by announcing “a larger cinematic story mode add-on” (Michael Martin, 2016), this type of content helps the game to appeal to a wider audience as players are able to enjoy the story and background of the world without needing an advanced understanding of the characters’ mechanics. In the article by Michael Martin (2016), Dhalgren states that “these updates will definitely help casual fans dive further into the world of Street Fighter V.”. In terms of mechanics of gameplay Kenneth Nussbaum (2014) discusses the Focus Attack from the Street Fighter series which is an easy to use command that “gives new players an advanced tool at their disposal that’s fun and easy to execute.”. This move is an example of making the series more appealing to a casual audience, the mechanic itself makes the game more accessible for inexperienced players, yet has enough limitations that it doesn’t negatively impact higher level play. These types of features are all in an effort to make the game “approachable and accessible” (Matthew Jarvis, 2015) with a large focus on bringing in “a newer, younger audience”(Matthew Jarvis, 2015).How could you apply this new knowledge to your ideas for your character?

Consider age, gender, education, income, interests etc.

Consider traditional audiences vs new audiences

When developing my character I can consider the appeal of story and background when developing my character, by developing the backstory of my character and tying them to the existing story of the world I can create content which can be enjoyed by fans of the Street Fighter series regardless of their skill level. In particular if I wanted to develop a character for younger audiences I could develop the character to be more relatable to them and to have a more positive and appealing personality. An example of making the character more relatable would be for the character to be relatively young and have an appearance which resonates with younger audiences, such as a design with strong, bright colours. In terms of mechanics the character would need to fit in with the rest of the Street Fighter cast, easier to learn mechanics similar to the focus attack mechanic would allow the character to appeal to newer players while still having enough limitations to be fair at higher level play which is what most of the traditional audience find appealing about the series.

Do you think a Lego Street Fighter game might help to overcome some of these problems?

If so, how?

If not, why?

I believe that a Lego Street Fighter game would adapt the series to become more appealing to the casual audience, especially a younger demographic who may not have previously appreciated the complex controls. A Lego Street Fighter game could adapt some of the existing mechanics and make the game more accessible to a wider audience similarly to how the focus attack mechanic was implemented which was an easy and rewarding maneuver to use without detrimentally affecting higher level play. The bright and exaggerated designs of a Lego Street Fighter game would help very young audiences enjoy the story of the Street Fighter world without having any dependence on the player having a high level of understanding of the game mechanics.

Characteristics of the beat ’em up (Unit 9 1.1, 1.2)

What are the typical themes of the fighting game genre of video games?

How does your character fit, adapt or subvert these themes? Why is this relevant?

The fighting game genre is a highly competitive genre with a large focus on 2 player combat, the games are typically fast-paced and rely heavily on the skill of the players. The games generally have large casts of characters who each individually boast a deep level of complexity. According to Ack (2011) “as time has gone by, fighters have become increasingly complex” which can be beneficial for the competitive scene of the genre, however Ack also states that this complexity can mean that “players new to the genre feel it is too complex”. Titles within the fighting game genre also incorporate specific command inputs for each character which allow the player to perform a variety of moves with differing levels of complexity and power. My character would fit these themes as they will have attacks of differing complexity, they will have a heavy punch as well as a Critical Art which is an advanced type of move. My character is also designed to fit with other characters of the series whilst still remaining unique and individual which is important as fighting games rely on large, diverse casts of characters. This is relevant as my character must fit mechanically and visually with the genre, otherwise they would be a poor fit for any fighting game.

What is the appeal of these games? Why do you think people play them?

I believe that the appeal of the fighting game genre typically lies within the aspect of striving towards mastery and competing against opponents of similar skill, devoted players will typically dedicate themselves to learning specific characters until they have a strong understanding of the previously mentioned deep level of complexity. Features like a ranking system and the competitive esports scene encourage and reward players for mastering characters and taking on opponents of high skill levels which further solidifies the idea that competition and mastery are the primary appeal for dedicated players.

What are the key conventions/characteristics of the genre?

How could you use these to develop your character/concept?

Titles in the fighting game genre typically have large, diverse casts, my character would be designed in a way which fits in with the world of the fighting game whilst also having a unique appeal both in design and gameplay mechanics. According to Ack (2011) fighting game characters must be as mechanically balanced as possible with regards to the rest of the playable cast with the only exception being “boss characters” or a “joke character”. Subverting this would generally result in “harsh criticism” so my character would have to be on the same level as the rest of the cast mechanically whilst not being too iterative of other character playstyles. Typically fighting games are one versus one fights, so the character’s playstyle would be based around that, there is no need for my character to have moves which benefit an ally near them if the only other character they will ever be near is a single enemy. Another key characteristic of the fighting game genre is the input command, these commands allow players to input a combination of controller inputs to perform powerful moves, the complexity of an input often correlates to the power of a move, for example a basic punch is an easy input for a basic attack, but powerful moves such as Street Fighter’s critical arts require complex button combinations for much greater effect. I can use this knowledge to develop my character by designing a variety of moves with widely differing complexity as this is a staple in the fighting game genre.How have other developers followed or adapted these characteristics for new interpretations of the genre? What can you learn from this?

Nintendo’s Super Smash Bros. (Hal Laboratories, 2014) series is a fighting game series which currently allows for up to 8 players in a match with various team setups such as one versus one, 4 opposing teams and free-for-all. Due to the variety of styles of match the game allows for the player to heavily customise match settings, for example there is an item which only has the use of healing a teammate, in a one versus one match the players will have no use for this item so they may choose to change the settings so that this item doesn’t appear whilst all other still do. Super Smash Bros. also adapts special moves by making them based on one direction input and one button input whilst also being based on the current state of the character, this makes the moves far simpler than typical fighting games with a focus on the positioning of the character over memorisation of button combinations. This simplification also makes the game more appealing to a casual group as the button inputs are universal throughout the cast with the only memorisation being what the resulting move is. From this I can learn that simplification of existing mechanics and universal input styles can make a title far more accessible for newcomers to a series, having many of the inputs be universal throughout the cast makes Super Smash Bros. a very accessible game with a low skill floor when compared to other fighting games.What are the key gameplay elements?

How does your character fit, adapt, or subvert these elements?

As I previously mentioned the fighting game genre is highly competitive and features at it’s core moves with both complex and simple inputs, many fighting games also have a large cast of playable characters which allow players to play in a large variety of ways. I can use this information to develop my character, if I want my character to fit into a fighting game it must be unique when compared to the rest of the cast, characters in fighting games are designed to offer varying play styles so my character’s design and mechanics must not be too iterative whilst still fitting the theme of the game, for this reason my character will have attacks and movements which are similar to existing characters yet are different enough that the character has it’s own appeal when compared to other members of the cast. At a basic level my character would fit with the core gameplay elements such as having a bar of health and having a range of animations both for using attacks and for being hit by an opponent.

Identify examples cited in the article that could help you develop your character/concept?

In what ways could they help inform your ideas?

The primary way this article helps inform my ideas is with regards to diversity of character design, the article mentions that fighters have large, diverse casts, so if my character is to be suitable then they must be appealing in a way which no other member of the cast is. The article also covers inputs for attacks, this is relevant for my character as I must consider both simple moves and complex ones as fighting game characters always have a large and diverse movepool. Combining both of these elements my character must have a fighting style which isn’t to iterative of another cast member, if two characters are almost identical in moves then there is less appeal for each of them individually, so my character must be unique to the rest of the cast both visually and mechanically.

Street Fighter Assassin’s Fist Report (Unit 9 1.1) (Unit 10 1.1)

How did the creators of the Street Fighter movies and games adapt the franchise for varying audiences?

The creators of the Street Fighter movies and games tailor their products to different audiences by using varying artistic and thematic styles. The Street Fighter: Assassin’s Fist movie is quite serious and uses real actors rather than 2D or 3D animation, this relatively serious tone contrasts slightly to how some of the characters appear in the Street Fighter games, for instance in the most recent title Birdie is a relatively comedic character in his movements and actions. These different types of tone may appeal to different groups which would help expand the amount of people interested in Street Fighter as a whole.

How did Street Fighter: Assassin’s Fist compare to the previous movies, both Hollywood and animated?

Street Fighter: Assassin’s Fist was interesting as it focused on the origin stories of Ryu and Ken, it also featured the origin of the antagonist Akuma. This type of origin story is valuable as it doesn’t require the viewer to have any knowledge of the characters, yet it also appeals to people who want to see how their favourite characters came to be. One potential downside to Street Fighter: Assassin’s Fist when compared to other movies such as the animated movie would be the fact that the film showed a very small amount of characters, almost exclusively focusing on Ryu and Ken, with a limited amount of other characters sharing the screen time.

How did the Street Fighter movie game compare to the Street Fighter 2 game?

The Street Fighter movie game used images of real people for animations instead of drawn sprites, this was an interesting design choice however the movements appeared stilted and awkward and they didn’t use this style in the future. This is likely because their audience didn’t find the style appealing so they reverted to normal animation techniques. It is possible that this animation style lead the Street Fighter movie game to be less popular than the Street Fighter 2 game which used a more traditional style of animation.

Which character in the Street Fighter: Assassin’s Fist movie appealed to you the most?

The character I found the most interesting in Street Fighter: Assassin’s Fist was Ken, for the fist half of the movie he is shown as as a brash, hotheaded character. There are many parallels between Ryu and Ken’s rivalry and Gouken and Gouki’s rivalry. It seemed obvious that Ken was being foreshadowed to turn dark, especially when he was shown to be less skilled than Ryu, he was presented with an easier path to strength and it seemed at first that he would accept it and go down a dark path but instead he became less hotheaded as the movie played out. It was very interesting to see his character development throughout the film, I found that to be one of the most capturing aspects of the film and it made Ken a much more appealing character to me.

Which character in the Street Fighter animated movie appealed to you the most?

I found E. Honda to be one of the most appealing characters, his lighthearted attitude lent itself well to the movie. The movie had a mixture of serious and comedic tones and E. Honda helps to lighten some of the more serious parts of the movie with his easygoing, fun personality. He even had moments of selflessness when giving Ryu money and helping carry a fallen opponent to safety. Overall I feel that his presence helps to keep the overall movie from becoming too serious or dark while he is in a scene.

Character Study 1 – Ryu (Unit 9 1.1, 1.2) (Unit 10 1.2)

For this task I animated a character in 3DS Max, to do this I first had to find an appropriate reference video. The reference video I used was a single loop of Ryu’s idle animation, I applied the video to a plane in 3DS Max and placed it behind the 3D character, matching the body’s proportions and posing the character to match the first frame of Ryu’s animation. After the character was posed to match Ryu I began to add keyframes using the autokey tool, I changed the position and rotation of several parts of the character model to match the apex of Ryu’s motions.

(Right-Click and select Loop to have the video repeat)

I didn’t have many issues with this task, the animation was relatively short and simple to create. After I had created the Ryu idle animation I animated Ryu’s Hadouken attack, this was more complex than the idle animation as the animation was longer, there are more movements and those movements are much more precise. Due to this it took me longer to create the Hadouken animation than the idle animation, but I was happy with the outcome of both, the only concern I had about the final animation of the Hadouken is about the movement of the hands as they twist a lot throughout the animation.

(Right-Click and select Loop to have the video repeat)

(Reference video used)

Overall I am happy with the outcome of these animations, I had no issues developing the idle or the Hadouken. The Hadouken was more complex to animate but I had no issues and in the end I was satisfied with the animation. By doing this task I have further familiarised myself with animation, in particular working with a rigged character and assigning keyframes for different bones based on template animations.

Pixel Art 1 – Ryu (Unit 9 1.1)

Ryu Pixel Art

For this task I created a 16×16 Pixel version of Ryu from Street Fighter, the aim of the task was to consider the core aspects of a character such as form and colour. The limited size of the character means I had to consider the shape of the character more carefully as I had a small amount of pixels to work with. The colours are also simplified due to the limited amount of pixels, this helped me to recognise how different tones of the same could help define certain aspects of the character such as the arms. Colour is a vital feature when working with such low detail, strong colours can make designs very recognisable, for example in the pixel work below it is easier to recognise them as Ryu because of the strong colours which are incorporated into Ryu’s character design.

Ryu Pixel Art Silhouette

Before adding the colour into the pixel art I defined the outline of the character as a silhouette which served as a base to work off of. By creating this silhouette I was able to focus on the form of the character without concerning myself with details such as colour and perspective. The pixel silhouette was based off of reference images of Ryu

Ryu Idle Reference Image

Overall I was happy with the outcome of this task, by separating the task into two halves of making the silhouette and then colouring the design I was able to focus on the different core aspects of the character without any confusion. The size limitations of this task meant that I had to carefully consider the form of the character and how each pixel of colour could convey a slightly different meaning, for instance the arms were made of three different shades of the same colour, the darker and lighter highlights were used to give a sense of perspective.

Character Study 2 – Birdie (Unit 9 1.1, 1.2) (Unit 10 1.2)

For this task I animated a character in 3DS Max following on from my previous 3D animations. The reference video I used was a single loop of Birdie’s idle animation, I applied the video to a plane in 3DS Max and placed it behind the 3D character, matching the body’s proportions and posing the character to match the first frame of Birdie’s animation. I had minor issues as Birdie’s body was much larger than the rigged character, this led the character model to be slightly strangely posed as I didn’t want to change the proportion of the pre-made model. After the character was posed to match Birdie I began to add keyframes using the autokey tool, I changed the position and rotation of several parts of the character model to match the apex of Birdie’s motions. This was more complex than the Ryu animations as Birdie’s idle had small animations between the idle loop.

(Right-Click and select Loop to have the video repeat)

I had some issues with this task, the animation was more complex that the previous ones and this meant that I had to coordinate more movments at different times. I was still happy with the final render even through my difficulties, though there are several aspects I feel should be more detailed. I feel that I could have improved on the hand details and animated the fingers more as in his idle Birdie repeatedly clenches his hands.

(Reference video used)

Overall I am happy with the outcome of this animation, I only had a few minor issues but the outcome was satisfactory. By doing this task I have further familiarised myself with animation, in particular working with a rigged character and assigning keyframes for different bones based on template animations. I also developed my ability to transition from a repeated short animation into different animations and then return to the loop.

Pixel Art 2 – Birdie (Unit 9 1.1)

Similarly to the previous pixel task I created Birdie from Street Fighter in a 16×16 format, the overall picture is 24×24 and the blue guidelines display the 16×16 section. The original sprite is designed to fit within the 16×16 area and the outside areas are for animating the character as they will leave the smaller area when they perform actions. For this task I attempted to animate one of Birdie’s signature moves.

The colours and the exaggerated form of my pixel art help to make the character more recognisable even though the 16×16 style limits the amount of detail available. By using strong colours I can make the design more vibrant which helps make the design more memorable and recognisable. Using 3 minor variations of each colour allowed me to convey a sense of depth in the characters design, it also allowed me to separate different areas of Birdie’s body, for example the flesh tones of Birdie’s belly and arm overlap, to make each stand out from the other I used a darker shade on the inside of Birdie’s arm and a lighter shade on the outside of Birdie’s belly.

Birdie Pixel Art

One again before adding the colour into the pixel art I defined the outline of the character as a silhouette which served as a base to work off of. By creating this silhouette I was able to focus on the form of the character without concerning myself with details such as colour and perspective.

Birdie Pixel Art Silhouette

This is a 3 frame pixel animation of Birdie’s special attack, the frames are; Birdie’s idle pose, Birdie reeling back before the move and then the apex of Birdie’s headbutt. To do this I had to use a lot of the techniques learned in the previous task, primarily the considerations of different tones of the same colour to distinguish the separate areas.

Birdie 3 Frame Attack Animation

The video below is what I used as a reference, I took screenshots of the 3 main keyframes in the attack’s animation and created pixel silhouettes which match them to use as the basis for my animation. When creating the 3 frames of animation I had to consider the form of the character so that I wouldn’t stretch them too far or make it seem like an unrealistic transition.

I am happy with the end result of my work and I believe this was a good way to build on what I learned from my previous task. This work has helped me consider form, colour and motion in a limited format and will be useful for my future projects which cover character design and animation. As this was the second task of its kind I found it much easier to work with the limitations, I worked more quickly and the I found that the quality of the final design was better than with the Ryu task, in particular I found it easier to use colour highlights to convey perspective and make the character look less flat.

Pitch Preparation (Unit 9 1.2) (Unit 10 1.2)

To prepare for my pitch of two characters I had to come up with concepts which would fit both the Street Fighter and Lego worlds, to do this I looked at characters from both and considered how my character could fit together with other Street Fighter characters. After preparing the characters I will pitch each one and recieve feedback, based on this feedback I will be refining the designs of one of the characters and then working on their visual design.

The first character is called Robin Trudeau, they are a 24 year old white male from Quebec. They are a jolly, daring showman of a person who loves to be the centre of attention. They tend to wear loose clothing so that their movements aren’t restricted, mostly they wear reds and yellows which are strong colours reflecting the character’s theme of fire. The backstory of the character is that they have been a part of the Cirque Du Soleil from a young age and learnt how to be a fire breather, eventually they traveled the world and met Dhalsim who helped them learn how to breathe fire without any equipment. Their fighting style is fast, flowing and acrobatic which reflects their circus background. They are aimed to appeal to a younger audience who like lighthearted, jolly characters with colourful appearances. I believe they are suitable for both Street Fighter and Lego due to their ties to the StreetFighter world and the fact that they are a bright, jolly character.

The second character is called Martin Holt, they are a 36 year old white male from New York. They are a cunning, cold and condescending character with questionable morals. They are a tall, imposing figure with dark slicked back hair. They typically wear suits and the colours that they wear are dark blues and blacks. This character’s backstory is that they were a ruthless and successful businessman who ended up having issues with the law and eventually joined the Shadaloo because of their cunning and intelligence. Their fighting style is direct and brutal, they tend to rely on their custom-made technology which allows them to create and manipulate sharp shards of ice in combat. This character is designed for a slightly more mature audience, people who appreciate cunning villain characters more than the hero characters. I believe that this character would fit well with the villains of Street Fighter, but may not appeal as much to the younger audience of the Lego franchise.

Overall I am happy with both designs and I would have no problem developing either idea. I believe that the first design would be the most suitable as it is most appropriate for both the Street Fighter and Lego franchises, whereas my second design would appeal less to children. I will be pitching both ideas and base my future work on the feedback I receive on my ideas.

Pitch and Feedback (Unit 9 1.2) (Unit 10 1.2)

The aim of my pitch was to receive feedback on both of my character concepts so that I could go on to refine the more popular character’s design. After that I will work on the visual design of my character before animating them in 3DS Max.

The first character was the fire breather Robin Trudeau, this was the more popular character of the two. Most of the feedback was positive and there were very few suggestions about how to improve the character, any suggestions focused around refining my ideas for their visual design.

The second character I pitched was the manipulative Martin Holt, the feedback I got about this character was still positive, but it was focused mostly on refining what makes the character interesting and unique. In the end I didn’t refine this character design much and opted to work on the other character design instead which lead up to the visual design work.

Overall was happy with the feedback for my characters, I worked on the design of the more popular character; Robin Trudeau and then developed their visual design in Lego form shortly after the pitch. Most of my work refining this character was centralised around me researching the circus and real fire breathers, as well as characters within Street fighter that my character was tied to and how the moves of my character would fit into the games.

Lego Character Design (Unit 9 2.1, 2.2) (Unit 10 2.1, 2.2)

For this task I began working on my Lego character design in pencil, I tried multiple variations of designs in an attempt to find out what worked best for my character. I a started with some quick small drawings based off of the smallest templates, I used these to try varying appearances without much commitment to their design. For the slightly larger designs I tried combining aspects from the previous designs together, I worked based on feedback and tried using the features which people believed suited the character the most.

Before working on my final large designs for the front and back of the character I worked on facial designs, these were all variants of a smirk or grin and were intended to convey a confident personality. After refining the facial designs I moved on to the final large drawings and used the design which I liked the most.

For the final designs I tried two slightly different designs, they had different hairstyles and the shirt is worn differently, but the base design is quite different. I am the happiest with the longer-haired design with the more open shirt, after this stage I will work to recreate the design in a cleaner digital format which can then be used to aid in the creation of the final 3D design.

Lego Character Refined Design (Unit 9 2.1, 2.2) (Unit 10 2.1, 2.2)

Here is the refined version of my previous work, it was recreated in Photoshop. There is a reference in the top left for the colour codes used in the image, this way the reds of the image are all the same red for example. This can also be beneficial for future production as when I am texturing the final model I can use these colour references.

To make this I used a template of a blank Lego form and altered the outlines, filled the areas with colours and added details such as the face and the muscles under the shirt. For some parts of the design I used a graphics tablet, the eyebrows and the mouth in particular required more detailed line work which couldn’t be easily achieved with the brush or pencil tool. The details on the trousers which make them look loose and baggy were also achieved by using the graphics tablet as they allowed lines which were thinner at either end.

Overall I was very happy with the outcome of this work, the image clearly shows my design and has a colour code which will be vital to my future work developing this character. When creating textures for my final design I will reference this design heavily, I will refer the the colour code and the details of the image. I will also have to create hair for my character based off of this piece of work in preparation for my final animations.

Texturing

Before animating my Lego character I had to texture them, this work was heavily based off of my Photoshop digital design. I created the textures in Photoshop based off of the unwrapped UVW templates of the key areas of the character’s body. Below are the textures which I used and then what the model looks like with them applied. To accurately apply the textures to the model I had to assign the designs for different aspects of the character such as their face and the emblem on their back to the corresponding location on the UVW template. I could do this by going into the UVW template modifier on 3DS Max and highlighting any part of the template which would highlight the relevant polygon.

Overall I am happy with the outcome of this work, the textures are applied just fine and there are no real issues. Now that the character has been textured I can move on to animating the character based off of animation reference videos which were edited in Adobe Premiere.

Reference Videos

Before I could animate my character in 3DS Max I needed to record reference videos for my animations, these would be taken from two viewpoints and then synced in Adobe Premiere. The videos were based off of my previous drawing work where I drew the different moves of my character. Below are the final reference videos.

With these reference videos I can animate my character in 3DS Max, the way I can use these videos is to import them into 3DS Max as a material and apply them to a plane which matches the aspect ratio of the video, this can be seen below in a screenshot of me working on my idle animation.

Overall this task went well and set me up appropriately to animate my character in 3DS Max. The only issue I had was that the second viewpoint for the Critical Art reference video didn’t record so I only had one viewpoint to work with.

Idle Animation (Unit 9 2.1, 2.2) (Unit 10 2.1, 2.2)

The first animation I created was the idle animation, this animation is a short loop where the character is simply standing in a stance during a fight. To create this animation I first imported the reference videos for both the front and side view, this allowed me to sync up the timings of the character’s movements to my reference video.

Before I could animate the character I posed them, this stage is simply to set the first frame of the character’s animation which they will return to after completing one cycle of the animation. This stage was not particularly difficult, though I did have to work around the limitations of the Lego form.

The first stage of animating the character was to add keyframes to the pelvis bone, this part of the body was core to the movements of the entire character so I worked on it first. Following this I moved the bones which controlled the feet to make the motions of the character’s body make sense, I then rotated the legs and feet to make sure that no part of them stretched unnaturally.

Next I added keyframes for the arms and the head, the head was simple to animate as it had very few movements, the arms required me to watch the timings of the reference videos more carefully. I made sure that the motions of the arms weren’t perfectly in sync so that the character would appear to move more naturally. Below is the final idle animation.

Overall I am pleased with the outcome of this animation, the motions are smooth and no parts of the both stretch unnaturally. I had no real difficulties with animating the character aside from going back through and making sure no part of the body appeared broken.

Taking Damage Animation(Unit 9 2.1, 2.2) (Unit 10 2.1, 2.2)

The second animation I created was the taking damage animation, this animation is a short loop where the character is has been hit by an opponent and is staggering back. After the animation is complete they return to their idle pose.To create this animation I first imported the reference videos for both the front and side view, this allowed me to sync up the timings of the character’s movements to my reference video.

I did not have to repose the character as I based this animation off of the original idle loop, the animation has one cycle of the idle loop and then one cycle of the taking damage animation.

The first stage of animating the character was to add keyframes to the pelvis bone, this part of the body was core to the movements of the entire character so I worked on it first. Following this I moved the bones which controlled the feet to make the motions of the character’s body make sense, I then rotated the legs and feet to make sure that no part of them stretched unnaturally. Moving the feet was quite challenging as the character has to take multiple quick steps which must have natural-looking timings and not break the model, I am pleased with how this turned out, but the Lego model was tough to work with to achieve this effect.

Next I added keyframes for the arms and the head, the head was simple to animate as it had very few movements, the arms required me to watch the timings of the reference videos more carefully. The arms were matched with the timings of when the character falls back and when they start to recover from their stagger.

I am happy with this animation, though it was much more complex than the last one. The character’s motions are smooth and no parts of their body stretch unnaturally. I had only minor issues making the movements look natural without breaking the model of the character.

Attack Animation (Unit 9 2.1, 2.2) (Unit 10 2.1, 2.2)

The third animation I created was the attack animation, this animation is a short loop where the character lunges forward and punches before returning back to their original stance. To create this animation I first imported the reference videos for both the front and side view, this allowed me to sync up the timings of the character’s movements to my reference video.

I did not have to repose the character as I based this animation off of the original idle loop, the animation has one cycle of the idle loop and then one cycle of the attack animation.

The first stage of animating the character was to add keyframes to the pelvis bone, this part of the body was core to the movements of the entire character so I worked on it first. Following this I moved the bones which controlled the feet to make the motions of the character’s body make sense, I then rotated the legs and feet to make sure that no part of them stretched unnaturally. I made an effort to ensure that the character’s forward foot hits the ground as the punch reaches it’s apex, I also made sure that the character appears to freeze for an instant after the hit for added impact.

Next I added keyframes for the arms and the head, the head was simple to animate as it had very few movements, the arms required me to watch the timings of the reference videos more carefully to make sure that the impact of the strike was synchronised well with the rest of the body’s motions.

I am happy with this animation, I found it to be more complex than the idle animation, but less complex than the taking damage animation. The character’s motions are smooth and no parts of their body stretch unnaturally. I had only minor issues making the movements look natural without breaking the model of the character. I am pleased with the overall timings of the character’s movements.

Critical Art(Unit 9 2.1, 2.2) (Unit 10 2.1, 2.2)

The final animation I created was the critical art, this animation was the most complex and had more than triple the frames of any of my other animations. The animation was based off off a reference video, but doe to technical issues I only had one video to use, which could have caused problems, but fortunately didn’t.

The first stage of animating the character was to add keyframes to the pelvis bone, this part of the body was core to the movements of the entire character so I worked on it first. Following this I moved the bones which controlled the feet to make the motions of the character’s body make sense, I then rotated the legs and feet to make sure that no part of them stretched unnaturally. I made an effort to ensure that the character’s forward foot hits the ground as the punch reaches it’s apex, I also made sure that the character appears to freeze for an instant after the hit for added impact.

Next I added keyframes for the arms and the head, the head was simple to animate as it had very few movements, the arms required me to watch the timings of the reference videos more carefully to make sure that the impact of the strike was synchronised well with the rest of the body’s motions.

After the body’s movements were animated I added particle effects for the flames, this used a superspray particle generator which emitted particles that changed from yellow, to orange to red and then faded away. Afterward I worked on the particles I added a camera and made it follow along with the character’s movements, this helped emphasise the character’s motions and made some parts more visible than a stationary camera could.

I am very happy with this animation, it was the most complex animation, but I found it to also be my highest quality animation of the three. The character’s motions are smooth and no parts of their body stretch unnaturally. I am pleased with the overall timings of the character’s movements and I think the camera and particles work well.

Sound Work

For this task I chose to dub audio over my attack animation render, the first stage in the process of creating audio for my video was to decide what noises would be appropriate. To do this I looked at Lego games and Street Fighter to see what kind of sounds were used, in the end I decided to use three different sounds, one for the motion of the arm, one for the impact of the hit and one which was the vocals of the character attacking, these can be seen in the table below which also shows how I made the sounds.

When recording sound I had to monitor the levels of the audio which was being recorded, I had to tweak settings on the recording device to ensure that the audio being recorded wasn’t peaking, but was also audible. The first sound was the swiping, swooshing sound of the arm moving quickly for the punch, this was a relatively simple sound to make. To make this sound I recorded a coat hanger being swiped through the air, the way that the coat hanger was held affected the type of sound it made and I decided that I preferred a shorter snappier sound for the swipe.

The second sound recorded was the impact sound, this was recorded by punching a balled up leather glove, the intention was to create audio which was reminiscent of skin being hit. This sound was quite high pitched and sounded very snappy, this wasn’t bad but I thought it was too high-pitched so I went into audacity to edit the audio, I edited all of the audio tracks, but this one in particular needed me to tweak settings such as pitch and speed to produce the desired effect. I also used the envelope tool to make the sound fade out slightly after the initial impact.

The final sound I created was the vocal sound of the character when they were punching, for this I wanted the noise to sound like a “hah”, the sound also had to be very forceful whilst fitting the character. For this I recorded one of my classmates and directed them so that I could get the type of audio I desired. I was happy with the resulting audio, but I decided to edit it in audacity to increase the pitch to make them sound slightly different to what I had recorded. I did this because I thought a slightly higher pitched voice fitted the character more than my initial recordings.

After recording all of the audio I used Premiere to dub the sounds I had created over the attack animation video. To do this I imported all of the audio files as well as the video file into the program and then tried to synchronise the audio tracks to the motions in the video. The end result of my work can be seen below.

Overall I’m quite happy with how this work turned out, I think that the sounds are appropriate and add a lot to the initial video. The only part I had any doubts about was the impact sound, I felt it was strange given that the character wasn’t hitting anyone and even if they were I felt that I could have used a slightly different type of impact sound. I was very pleased with the swipe and the vocal sound, the swipe felt like something out of a cartoon which made it feel very fitting for a Lego character, the vocals were also very accurate to what I had envisioned, part of what I believed helped make these sounds so good was the amount of takes we did. By recording many variations of the same sound I had a lot of options to choose from when I edited them in Audacity.

Evaluation and Reflection (Unit 9 3.1, 3.2) (Unit 10 3.1, 3.2)

The aim of my project was to create several animations in 3DS Max which fit the style of both Lego and Street Fighter. My end goal was to have at least an idle animation, an attack animation and a taking damage animation, if I had enough time I could also create a critical art animation. To create an animation reel which fit the Lego and Street Fighter themes I had to do research into both franchises, I looked at character designs, audience and audio in order to better understand the core features of characters in both franchises. After conducting a variety of pieces of research I started working on tasks which would set me up for my final animations such as concept art, storyboarding and reference video creation. Based off of these tasks I created an idle animation, an attack animation and a taking damage animation for a Lego character which had a Street Fighter themed design.

I believe that the quality of my animations is one of the strengths of my final design, I feel that they are smooth and timed well. I also feel that I worked around the limitations of the Lego model well, the character matches the movements of the reference videos without breaking the form of the character. I am happy with the amount of research that I did for this project too, this research helped me understand core aspects of character design and how to design for a target audience. I’m also pleased with my final character design in regards to their personality and backstory and how that tied to their design, I feel that the bright colours and their facial expression help convey what kind of a character they are. Another aspect of my final design which I feel is a strength is the texturing, the textures are all assigned correctly and look good, this work was based heavily off of my digital design so I feel like that was another strength as these are tied closely together. The main aspect of my final design which I believe to be a weakness is the fact that I almost didn’t complete the critical art animation, this was an extension task but I initially didn’t have the time to finish it due to time constraints caused by University open days and illness taking much of my time near the end of the project. Due to this I left myself a large amount of work for short amount of time near the end, but fortunately I completed it all including the critical art animation. Another weakness of my final design would be my drawings, my character drawings in my storyboard task could use some improvement in terms of proportions, though I was happy with my 2D character design task. A different aspect I would like to have improved was the character design, I felt that it ended up relatively simplistic, this is partly because I aimed to create a design which would appeal to children, but I feel that I could have done more extensive research into visual design with regards to my character in particular to improve their final design. I also feel that I could have taken more screenshots during certain processes such as the digital design for my character, this would have helped show how I created the design from start to finish.

The overall themes of my designs were Street Fighter and Lego, I was trying to create an end project which would appeal to both audiences. I developed my designs by researching into both franchises, I looked in depth at how both types of game were targeted at a certain audience and how their designs reflected this. I also researched aspects such as sound design and animations to further my understanding of how each compared and how I could incorporate a mixture of these into my design. Through this research I was able to create a design which should in theory appeal to both audiences and fit which the existing themes set by either franchise. All of my design choices were made to at least some extent based off of my research into both Lego and Street Fighter, I tried to focus on the middle ground of both as well as universal themes such as the timings of animations in games.

Most of the experimentation I did with designs was after completing research, but before working on my final animation. I made many variants of the 2D design in various sizes before picking two that I liked and redrawing them in large, after this I recreated only one of these in Photoshop, this is an example of how I experimented with as design before combining the best aspects into one final design. While experimenting with designs I also took on board a lot of feedback to see what people found appealing about particular designs and how I could combine these aspects to the best effect. I also developed the basic ideas for a few different character designs by myself before settling on two I liked and pitching them in front of others. All of these different explorations allowed me to compare the designs and figure out what the best aspects were, this allowed me to develop final ideas which were based on feedback and various previous pieces of work.

I’d say that the key area of development for my character was their visual design, as stated above I experimented a lot with their design in order to find out what was good about their appearance and how I could incorporate this into their final digital design. When developing their design I continuously considered their characteristics and how this could be conveyed through their appearance, I wanted to simultaneously stay faithful to the personality of the character while fitting with the style of a Street Fighter character and making the character in a Lego form. To do this I reflected on my previous pieces of research such as my work on colour and existing Street Fighter characters.

One of the main aspects of my design which feel I could develop to improve would be the character’s design with regards to matching other Street Fighter characters, I feel that the design would need to be more complex in order to fit better with other existing characters from the Street Fighter universe. One of the ways I could have done this would have been for me to either put more small details into the design such as creases on the shirt rather than just on the trousers. I could also have done more research into what fire breathers wear to see if there are any universal pieces of clothing or notable, unique items which they wear that could have been incorporated into my character’s appearance. Another way I could have developed my final piece of work would have been to simply spend more time animating, this would have meant I could complete the critical animation more quickly and look over my previous animations to ensure that I am happy with their timings and how the form moves.

I believe that my final work is appropriate for Lego as many aspects of the visual design for this project were created with a focus on the target audience of the Lego games. My character was designed with a young audience in mind, for instance I focused on using bright colours in my design. I also ensured that the character itself was suitable for Lego, they had no ties to inappropriate themes for children such as over sexuality or extreme violence, linked to this my visual design had nothing inappropriate like blood or gore and was made to appeal to children. Another way in which I matched existing Lego products to ensure that mine was suitable was by researching aspects of existing Lego characters, for example I looked up the proportions of Lego faces and where their mouth would be compared to their eyes, if they had any kind of nose, how Lego design smirks and grins for their characters. I also looked at how Lego incorporated minor details such as creases on trousers and muscles on a character’s torso. I did all this to ensure that my design would match existing Lego products and not look out of place at all when compared to them.

When considering how my character would fit Street Fighter I had more of a focus on the character’s personality and how they would move and sound in the final animation, though I still tried to match the character’s visual design to other Street Fighter characters. When considering these aspects I researched existing Street Fighter characters I looked into their visual designs as well as how they moved around in-game, I also compared older titles to recent games to see how the sound design changed and how this affected the way a character’s personality was conveyed. I did all this to see how I could translate these features into my work, I looked into the characters of Street Fighter to see how my character compared and I looked at which characters would be closest to mine and what ties they would have. In the end my character was tied to Dhalsim from Street Fighter as both characters can breathe fire so I felt that my character could have developed techniques and learnt from Dhalsim while travelling the world. Although most of my audience considerations focused around being appropriate for the young audience of Lego I also considered the target audience of Street Fighter, this came across most prominently in the movements of the character and the timings of their animations, they needed to have relatively short durations and all move from and back into an idle animation, I feel that I made a final piece which matched up well to the timings of existing Street Fighter animations.

Overall I feel that the project went better than expected, though there were some aspects which I would have liked to have improved such as my concept artwork. I am happy with the outcome of my project, the textures look nice, the model never stretches unnaturally and the timings of their movements seem correct to me. A lot of the quality of the final product comes from the amount of time I spent on each aspect, I took a lot of time making sure the animations were all as good as I could make them, I also continuously sought feedback for them to make sure that people agreed that the timings were correct and to see what they though could be improved. I was also happy with the end product of my 2D digital design, I felt that it looked very clean and conveyed what I wanted it to, it was a very nice step up from the 2D drawings I did for my character. The only part which I felt could have improved would be the initial story board drawings which were not very high quality, for the drawings I feel that simply practicing a bit more in advance may have helped improve my work, or just redrawing one or two parts to make sure the images all look more similar.

Most of the feedback I received was for the parts of the project where I experimented a lot, so the initial 2D design and the final animations. For the 2D designs I received feedback regarding the character’s design, for instance one variant of my character design had stubble, but this was unanimously considered unfitting for the youthful, jolly, cocky character I was developing. I also tried variations of colour and how they wore their clothing, but I was told that certain colours such as orange didn’t have the intended impact. I was also told that keeping the shirt open and loose helped to convey the sense of a character which relies on acrobatic movement more as they wouldn’t wish to be constricted when moving about. I received continuous feedback when working on my final 3D animations, these were mainly pertaining to the timings of movements and what aspects of the character had unfitting, stilted movement. Much of this feedback was a back-and-forth with a small set of people as we tried to assist each other and give constructive criticism about the motions of the characters and what ways they could be improved to create convincing movements.

There are a few aspects which I feel I could improve, these are things I have previously mentioned such as my time management and the quality of my drawings. Regarding time management I simply feel that I should endeavor to ensure that I don’t leave any older pieces of work too long so that I’m almost always working on current work with a strong basis in previous work. In terms of my drawing quality I simply feel that a bit more practice in advance and revisiting the drawings to improve them could largely increase their quality, I just didn’t dedicate enough time to upping their quality at the time because I thought they served their purpose well enough at the time, but looking back I would be happier if I had paid more attention to detail at the time and worked a bit longer on them.

richardthomasgamesdevelopment

3 thoughts on “Year 2: Unit 9 and Unit 10”

I am impressed with the work that you have completed so far, you are making good progress on the tasks and written to a high standard ensuring that spelling, grammar and referencing are at a good standard.

However, you still have some bits that you need to complete and go into further detail with. I feel that you could have gone into more detail with specifics within the batman Lego report, perhaps look at movement, and voices of characters, also adding an element of humor to the games. I feel that you could have gone into more detail with changing your character also, perhaps you could give an example of an character that is similar.

The Lego/ sf/ mk report, could also have more detail within this, look at a character that perhaps is unsuitable and how it could be changed, perhaps one of the female characters. It should be noted that the representation of women within these games could be an obstacle for Lego, but you could always look at how star wars have conveyed Princess Leah.

The pixel art ones could do with more detail about the processes and techniques used within the making of, also how colors help you identify an existing character- see some of Adams pixel art.

Processes and techniques write ups, also apply for any other practical task that you have done. Ensure that you are discussing what you did whilst drawing, what feedback did you get, was it hard? Did it get easier? Did you try to convey movement? How?

Overall, I am happy with your work, although I want you to work at the high standards that you have set yourself last year and continue with this into your FMP, this should help and prepare you for that! 🙂

So far I have completed the evaluation and every other piece of work except the Assassin’s Fist report and the sound work. I went back and revamped some of the production pieces such as the pixel work and the 3D animations for Birdie and Ryu, but I haven’t gone over the essay work again yet, I’ll focus on them once I’ve finished the two tasks mentioned above.

Hey Cat, just so you know I’ve completed all the tasks I had left to do which were the critical art, the sound work and the movie report. I also managed to rework my evaluation to make sense with me having completed the critical art. The only things I haven’t had the time to do are the improvements to the early essays, but hopefully everything is still satisfactory.